rural health

The Wyoming Department of Health is asking for over $18 million in its supplemental budget request. A majority of the funds would go toward increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates in an attempt to retain physicians.

A new report shows that nearly half of metro areas in the U.S. – including some in the Mountain West – have only one or two health systems controlling all inpatient care. Experts say that’s driving up the prices that patients have to pay.

Some states are authorizing mid-level dental therapists — who can provide a limited scope of services. But others aren’t sure it’s the right strategy for tackling dentist shortages.

The new Wind River Cares Dialysis Center in Riverton opened its doors to patients earlier this month. The location aims to address health care shortages for those with kidney disease in a more rural part of the state.

Many emergency medical service agencies in Wyoming are struggling financially. Most have found ways to make ends meet despite rising costs and more complex expectations. But communities may have some difficult conversations ahead about how to pay for what many consider a necessary service.

Many respondents told researchers they would like more visiting specialists to come to their communities.

The Alzheimer’s Association of Wyoming recently received a more than $15,000 grant from the Wyoming Community Foundation to bring in-person education programs to the southwest and northeast corners of the state. The grant will support programming in Lincoln, Sublette, Sweetwater, Uinta, Crook, Niobrara and Weston counties.

A bill that would develop a ”plan of safe care” for newborns that are born into a situation where there is addiction or drug misuse has passed its first reading in the Wyoming State Senate. The Senate Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee voted unanimously in its favor before it reached the floor.

Cody Regional Health is opening a clinic in Basin, which is about 60 miles east of Cody. This will be the first facility that the hospital owns outside of Cody.Stephanie Kearney, the hospital’s chief ambulatory officer, said this gives them a lot more flexibility than a lease scenario where they show up a couple times a month for another healthcare provider.

When a nurse comes to a new mother’s home to help with nutrition and developmental milestones, it’s called a home visit. A federal program funds home visits for low-income families in the state. But as reporter Madelyn Beck found out for Wyofile, that program may lose its funding before the end of the year. Beck said there’s a bill proposed to increase funding but it hasn’t advanced. She said groups have been concerned for a while now.